10 Productivity Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know

We all need a watch like this. Photo by sleepyjeanie

How productive are you?

A holy grail for entrepreneurs, yet what is easy in theory it is very difficult in practice. Primarily because most of us have some form of entrepreneurial A.D.D. (I know I have) and the internet is built to be the world’s most effective distraction.

1. Zero Inbox

There’s nothing that stresses me out more than knowing I’ve 100+ emails waiting for me. Infact when I look back on times that I felt stressed about my workload, it usually correlates with my inbox being fuller than a German at Oktoberfest.

The only way to take control of your inbox (and your life) is to operate a zero inbox. That means having an empty inbox everyday.

Yep EMPTY

It’s possible, and when you do it, prepare yourself for a feeling of control you probably haven’t felt in years.

2. Working out

Ever heard the story about Sharpening the Saw? Hop on my knee and let me tell you…

A man was struggling in the woods to saw down a tree. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see?” the man impatiently replied, “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted,” said the farmer. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours, and I’m beat,” replied the man. “This is hard work.”

“That saw looks pretty blunt,” said the farmer. “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

Working out is the best saw sharpener I know. But don’t take my word for it:

A conversation between Richard Branson and Tim Ferris:

Tim: “How do you become more productive?”

Sir Richard Branson leaned back and thought for a moment before answering.

“Work out.”

He went on to elaborate that working out gave him at least four additional hours of productive time every day.

If you were to get one takeaway from this list to make you more effective, it’d be to work out. When I work out in the morning I get more done without fail.

Time to accomplish: 40 mins a day

Want to know more? You know what to do

3. Get it out of your head

Ever suffer from idea paralysis or things to do overwhelm? Hell I know I do – these days it’s not a case of lack of opportunities – but knowing what the next most important thing to do is

There are 2 major problems when we’ve got 50 ideas/things to do swimming around our head

– We forget some of them (yes, my girlfriend will agree with this one)

– Our brain is clogged up with stuff, this stifles our ability to think creatively

Solution: Write it down! Have a place you write down all your ideas and things to do as they come into your head (I use a mix of one of these and the notepad on my iphone). You’ll feel better

However that’s only half the solution as this only works if you review your ‘idea places’ regularly (say, every Sunday), otherwise your notebooks become a virtual filing cabinet that never gets looked at.

Time to accomplish: 1 hour initially, then 30 minutes once a week to review your notes

5. Focused Pompodoros

A few years back I got addicted to To-do lists. The feeling of accomplishment when you strike off each task is seriously rewarding. But as we get more stuff to do and begin juggling multiple projects, standard To-Do lists just don’t cut it anymore.

After trying many different attempts of improving this I’ve recently found a system that is rocking my To-Do list world. It’s from the Pompodoro technique and involves listing the items you need to achieve in the day and working through them in uninterrupted, uber-focussed 25 minute segments.

The benefits – you get more done, you know what you’ve achieved and you get better at predicting the length of work.

6. Focused Recovery

Top athletes now that the rest period in-between work outs are as important as the work outs themselves.

This means both taking time off (at least 1 day a week) from work and getting recovery breaks during the day (I try to take 5 mins every 25 mins, when working with the Pompodoro Technique (see number 5 above)

Sports psychologists Jim Loehr, Ed.D., and Tony Schwartz say:

“Managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance…We must learn to live our lives as a series of sprints – fully engaged for periods of time – and then fully disengaged and seeking renewal…”

7. Mindmaps

I use mindmaps to plan out every sizeable piece of work I do before I begin. It not only allows you to think of better ideas but also gives you a structure to follow when completing the work. The few minutes it takes to plans out your mindmap is returned x10 in total time saved for writing the article, and the quality is always better.

It’s another example of ‘Sharpening the Saw’ (see above)

Time to accomplish: 10 minutes before you begin a sizeable piece of work

8. Leverage your time

Leverage your time by hiring a virtual assistant (VA). You can hire great VA’s starting from $1.50 an hour and they can do everything from web design, SEO and social media to design, web research and data entry stuff. If it’s in anyway repetitive, you really should have a VA doing it.

Leaves you more time to focus on other things

Time to accomplish: Depends on the task, but it’s always a timesaver

Want to know more? Watch this space for a post on hiring a VA

9. Leverage your reach

Most of us have multiple profiles across different web 2.0 sites (blogs, video sites, social networks). To take advantage of these you really should be posting to all of them. Ah but this takes time.

Unless of course you can post to one site, and it automatically posts to all your other profiles for you.

Sites that do this include:

Ping.fm (social media)

Tubemogul (Video)

Time to accomplish: 1 hour setup for each

Want to know more? Will follow this post with video examples of how I use both of these sites for leverage – stay tuned!

Any productivity tips you’d like to add? I’d love to hear them – please add them to the comments below

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